The present invention relates to a bill receiving/dispensing machine for receiving and/or dispensing a bill, and more particularly to a bill receiving/dispensing machine in which supplement and collection of bills can be easily executed, a quick response can be made when a jam occurs, and security is improved.
A bill receiving/dispensing machine installed in an automatic teller machine used in, for example, a financial institution generally includes a receiving/dispensing port for inserting a bill by a user, for sending out the inserted bill and for ejecting a bill to a user, a bill identifying portion for identifying a bill, and a bill conveying passage passing through the bill identifying portion for conveying a bill. The machine also includes a temporary storing room for temporarily storing the inserted bill, and a recycle room for storing and sending out a bill both for receiving and payment. Further, the machine includes a reject room for storing a rejected bill which did not satisfy a predetermined criteria in the bill identifying portion, a supplying/collecting room for sending out a bill to the recycle room so as to fill up there and for storing a bill collected from the recycle room, and the like.
As an example of an inner layout of the bill receiving/dispensing machine, there is proposed a bill mechanism which is divided into upper and lower portions. See JP-A-9-44723 specification.
As an automatic teller machine becomes widespread, a bill receiving/dispensing machine which improves convenience of a user, saves labor of an operator (a person in charge of the machine), and improves security becomes desired.
There have been two types of methods of operating an automatic teller machine by an operator in accordance with an installed location of the machine: one is a front operation type, and the other is a rear operation type. The front operation type machine is operated from the front side of the machine by the operator, and thus can save a space since the operation space is common to a user and the operator. Contrary, the rear operation type machine is operated from the rear side of the machine by the operator and thus requires the operation space for the operator behind a rear door of the machine, but provides a private space only for the operator, which is separated from the operation space for an user, so that security is improved.
The operator""s operation of the bill receiving/dispensing machine is usually to supply a bill to a bill storing room and collect a bill from the bill storing room. Further, when a failure such as bill jamming occurs in user""s operation, it is necessary to quickly respond to the failure, remove the bill in the bill receiving/dispensing machine, repay the bill to the user, and reboot the machine.
Especially in a deposit transaction, since an old bill owned by various users may be inserted, the bill may be folded or broken, or since a foreign matter other than a coin and a bill may be inserted, there has been a problem that a failure such as the bill jamming is apt to occur. Further, in this case, since the jamming bill belongs to the user before completing the transaction, the operator has to return the bill to the user.
If the failure such as the bill jam occurs in a dispense transaction, the operator has to open the bill storing room holding a large amount of bills when removing the jamming bill, and the jamming bill does not belong to the user in this case, and thus, it is desirable, in view of the security, to quickly deal with the failure in a blind place to the user, and to quickly reboot the system.
Accordingly, it is desirable that the machine can consider service on the basis of a quick response to the user, and security in cash controlling, in view of the operator""s operation when such failure occurs.
The above described conventional example has not been in consideration of operational property when such failure occurs while being in consideration of the operator""s operational property and security by dividing the bill receiving/dispensing machine into upper and lower portions and installing a bill storing room in a strongbox housing.
An object of the invention is to provide a bill receiving/dispensing machine which is given consideration of not only usual supplement of a bill to a bill storing room and collection of a bill from the bill storing room, but also both of service by a quick response to the user and security in cash controlling in view of the operator""s operation when the failure such as the bill jam occurs during the user operation.
In order to achieve the above described object, the present invention provides a bill receiving/dispensing machine (1) including: a receiving port, dispensing port, or receiving/dispensing port (20), a bill identifying portion (30), a temporary storing room (40), a bill storing room (60, 70, 80, 81), and a bill conveying passage, in which the machine is constituted by an upper unit (upper bill mechanism 1a) including the receiving port, dispensing port, or receiving/dispensing port (20), the bill identifying portion (30), the temporary storing room (40), and an upper bill conveying passage (50; 501a to 501j), and a lower unit (lower bill mechanism 1b) including the bill storing room (60, 70, 80, 81), and a lower bill conveying passage (90; 901a to 901e), the lower unit (1b) is installed in a strongbox housing (106) made of a thick iron plate or the like, the lower unit (1b) includes a slide mechanism (152) to be pulled out backward from the strongbox housing, and the upper unit (1a) includes a slide mechanism (151) to be pulled out both forward and backward above the strongbox housing. The strongbox housing (106) is provided with a connecting conveying passage which connects the bill conveying passage in the upper unit (1a) and the bill conveying passage in the lower unit.
As a result, an operator operates the bill storing room in the lower unit by opening the strongbox housing of which security is highly ensured from the rear side of the machine for usual supplying and collecting and dispensing operations. When a failure such as a bill jam occurs in a deposit transaction, the jamming bill may remain in the upper unit, namely in the receiving/dispensing port, the temporary storing room, and the bill conveying passage connecting those, and thus the operator can pull out the upper unit at the front side of the machine, remove the jamming bill, and reboot the machine. At this time, since the lower unit holding a large amount of bills is placed in the strongbox housing, the security is ensured.
An embodiment of the present invention will be hereinafter described in detail with reference to the drawings.